Blind advocates blast White House

The National Federation of the Blind is fuming mad over the White House web site, complaining that its members have been unable to sign an important online petition.

The glitch, the group says, is in those often annoying tests that require users to type in a set of numbers and letters to prove they are human. On the White House web site, blind users can select an audio version of the test, but the audio is incomprehensible, according to federation spokesman Chris Danielsen.

And if users want to send email notifying the White House about the problem, well, that also requires a computer-human test with garbled audio, too, he said.

"We had asked people to sign the petition and we're getting these emails saying that people can't," Danielsen told POLITICO.

"The Constitution allows all of us to petition our government for a redress of grievance. It says nothing about needing to be able to see in order to do so."

The petition calls for the Obama administration to support an international treaty making more books accessible to the blind. So far, some 6,100 people have signed on since it was created May 23. But Danielsen said many more would have signed on had it not been for the web site issues. For an official White House response, it would need to reach 100,000 signatures before June 23.

The White House says the web site is fully compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires that federal web sites be accessible to people with disabilities, and it says it is looking into improving the site.

In the meantime, the Federation of the Blind wants the signature requirement waived so the administration will respond to its petition. Danielsen said the federation had thought that the administration would support the international treaty, which is being brokered in Morocco next month, but there has been a barrage of lobbying by some big business groups against the treaty and so the federation wants to make sure the White House still supports it.

"The administration has seemed supportive of it in the past, but lately the administration doesn’t seem to be commenting on it publicly," he said. "We're concerned that all of this intense lobbying is getting to this administration."